Inspiration from History: Design in the Wilderness
I am often inspired by design triumphs in history, but there is one design that has particularly influenced me[1]. It is a humble design: an odometer made from wood for covered wagons that was never put into mass production. Part of what makes it interesting is that it was done under harsh conditions with the goal to help other people and it would become a legendary part of an epic exodus and the settlement of the Western United States.
A group fleeing religious persecution built a temporary settlement they called Winter Quarters, in what was then Indian Territory, near what would become modern-day Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. They needed to find a safe place to settle and their leader, Brigham Young[2], determined to lead an advance company to the Rocky Mountains to locate their new home. In April 1847 a group of 148 people with their 70 wagons and carriages[3] left to found what the U.S. National Park Service now calls the “Mormon Pioneer Historic Trail”[4]. Although their expedition was physically parallel to a journey on the Oregon Trail, their objective was different: rather than reaching a destination, they were purposely preparing the way for emigrants who would follow and would establish communities in present-day Utah and Nevada, parts of Idaho, Wyoming, California and eventually into Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico, and Canada.
Among the expeditionary company was William Clayton[5], whose talents as a writer and record keeper led to an assignment to record information to help those who would follow the trail. Each night the group approximated the distance traveled that day, and the difference in estimates bothered the meticulous Clayton, especially since his estimates were lowest and the others teased him about underrating the distance. He miraculously found what he needed to settle the debate: a wagon wheel that he “calculated how many revolutions it would require for one mile [1.6 km] and found it precisely 360 not varying one fraction”. He then “counted the revolutions of a wagon wheel to tell the exact distance we have traveled.” There was now no question of how far they had traveled that day, but counting revolutions of a wheel was beyond tedious.
What followed was the creation, in the wilderness, of a novel machine that would influence the history the American West. There are many lessons to learn and here are a few I feel apply in many design situations:
Lesson 1: When you see a need with no current solution, that is not a problem, but an opportunity for design. Although he didn’t have the ability to design it himself, Clayton could see the value of automating the counting of wagon wheel revolutions to determine the distance travelled. He then persistently worked to persuade others that this was a worthy project.
Lesson 2: Diverse skills on a team are critical for success. The unique strengths of four key people were needed for the project to succeed. Clayton defined and communicated the needs and convinced Brigham Young to sponsor the project. Young gathered team members, provided resources, and authorized the expedition to pause their travel for the device’s fabrication and installation. Young asked a brilliant Orson Pratt[6] to consider possible solutions. Amazingly, Pratt designed a novel device with surprising accuracy. It was made mostly of wood with features, it had the scale and simplicity that could be fabricated with the tools on hand, it and didn’t place any significant friction on the wagon. Pratt’s design included two stages: the first rotated once a mile (1.6 km) and was marked to tenths of a mile (160 m), and the second stage measured distances up to thirty miles (48.3 km). The design specifications were given to the craftsman Appleton Harmon[7], who exercised his skill to create a physical embodiment of the design. A list of tools available to Harmon was not recorded, and it is still a mystery how he accomplished this feat. When people try to attribute a project to a single individual, it can confuse the importance of diverse contributions. If you look at three history books, you may find that one attributes the odometer to Clayton, another to Pratt, and another to Harmon. Where, without the contributions of them and Young, the project would not have succeeded.
Lesson 3: Be bold! They were in a desolate wilderness! It took confidence, even audacity, to think they could design a novel mechanism customized to fit a specific wagon, build it using materials and tools that they had on hand, do the work while the expedition was in a race against the seasons, and use it to create information that would be useful to others. We also see that having an altruistic purpose can provide motivation to stretch us to go beyond what we might otherwise consider.
Lesson 4: Diverging from engineering specifications has risks. Pratt’s design included two “endless screws” (worm gears) which must have been particularly difficult to fabricate and install. It is not known who modified the design, but the fabricated version replaced a worm gear with a four-tooth pinion carved into a shaft. This would be much easier to fabricate but is not consistent with good gear design, resulting in a failure of the second stage shortly after installation. Clayton still had the first stage, and counting miles was much easier than counting individual wheel rotations. When they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley[8] in modern-day Utah and chose it to be their new home, they revised and tested the odometer so that Clayton could verify the measurements on his 1,032-mile (1660 km) return journey to Winter Quarters[9].
Lesson 5: Documenting your results is important for facilitating the impact of the work. Clayton used his records to draft a trail guide. He took the manuscript to St. Louis, Missouri U.S.A. where it was published as the “Latter-day Saints Emigrants’ Guide”. It came off the press in March 1848, less than five months after Clayton’s return to Winter Quarters. What Clayton did not know was that gold was just discovered at Sutter’s Mill and the resulting California Gold Rush would dramatically change the market for the guide. Also, authors of other trail guides borrowed heavily from Clayton’s work. It likely also had a positive economic impact for the cash-strapped settlers as the guide often brought travelers to Salt Lake City on their path to other destinations[10].
It is worth learning from other designers, whether from history or from our contemporaries. We can be forewarned by their failures and inspired by their accomplishments and the impact of their contributions.
Notes and References:
[1] For more detailed engineering information on this topic, see “History of Mechanisms: The Odometer of the Mormon Trail” by L.L. Howell, published in Proceedings of the ASME IDETC, https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2006-99604.
[2] About 28 years later, he would found Brigham Young Academy, which would become Brigham Young University (BYU).
[3] William Clayton kept a detailed journal (see William Clayton’s Journal, Deseret News press, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A., 1921).
[4] See https://www.nps.gov/mopi/index.htm for the U.S. National Park Service description of the trail.
[5] During his arduous winter trek across Iowa to Winter Quarters, Clayton penned the words to a song that would become an anthem for emigrants who would later follow his path.
[6] Pratt had just returned from England where he likely had seen small brass odometers on high-end carriages.
[7] In another example of preparing the way for those who would follow, Harmon helped build a ferry across the North Platt River and was part of a group assigned to run the ferry while the others continued on.
[8] When they arrived on July 24, 1847, the area was part of Mexico.
[9] The return journey commenced less than a month after their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.
[10] The Salt Lake City area is still referred to as “The Crossroads of the West”.
